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Finally finished re-reading them all. Two questions: 1) Do we ever find out what quick ben actually is? He seems more than just a guy with a bunch of souls 2) I don't understand what happened when cotillion stabbed the crippled god at the end of TCG
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Jun 8, 2011 16:33
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gvibes posted:Finally finished re-reading them all. Two questions: 1- Nope! 2- TCG needed to die so his soul could be released. I'm not sure why Erikson decided to show it as it is in the book though.
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Jun 8, 2011 16:40
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On Quick: I don't think he's any sort of God, and he may be close to ascension but I don't think he's ascended either. He seems to revel in being a mortal. I think he represents the most extraordinary type of capable human who can pull of incredible feats in a pinch. He's got the souls of 12 high level mages, and not just one flavor of mage, but a lot of different types. He probably absorbed dozens of cultural flavors of magic and tricks, and things like the demon horse, the dolls, soulbinding, etc. He's basically a magic Wikipedia
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Jun 8, 2011 16:47
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Who knows, Erikson himself said he hasn't given enough information to explain who or what he is.
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Jun 8, 2011 17:29
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Abalieno posted:Is the "Malazan Book of the Fallen" the story of the Crippled God? Yes. He's the one who fell. Of course as I've posted before it's actually the Ammeanas and Cotillion show, but TCG is certainly the one the subtitle is named after. Ninja Edit: Shadowthrone = Am-meanas oh Erikson you sly devil.
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Jun 9, 2011 09:44
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Thats actually wrong. No need for spoilers here but it's named after napoleons book of the fallen. A list of soldiers who died in his war.
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Jun 9, 2011 12:24
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Currently on book Five: All about Trull. So is this the same guy they find at the edge of the inland sea in book 4? I want to go back and reread when they find him but I'm on a Kindle so it's not easy to flip pages!  Could someone point me in the right direction?
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Jun 9, 2011 17:15
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Juaguocio posted:Let us know how you feel when you're done with it all. I personally feel that the series starts to get weaker with Reaper's Gale. Yeah I'm in the middle of a series re-read before I donate it to the local library and just get Kindle versions for archive. The series hits a high at Memories of Ice and seems to level off until Reaper's Gale. Post Reaper's Gale is too convoluted, it's hard to discern intention and meaning when everything is so muddled. That's all despite having a ridiculous amount of filler that should be fleshing things out too but instead feels wasteful. Toll the Hounds and Dust of Dreams in particular were really hard to read, I had to push myself through them at times. Looking at the series in retrospect I think his editor just needs to snap the whip more often. Some of those books could have lost 100-200 pages without really detracting from the overall narrative threads.
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Jun 9, 2011 17:25
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1554 posted:Currently on book Five: Yeah it's the same guy. You know how at the end of book four they're all sitting around waiting for the Tiste Edur (sorry if that's mispelled) to show up at the T'Lan Imass throne and he's like "well guys I'll tell you my story about all this"? Well, book 5 is his story
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Jun 9, 2011 18:43
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The Gunslinger posted:Yeah I'm in the middle of a series re-read before I donate it to the local library and just get Kindle versions for archive. The series hits a high at Memories of Ice and seems to level off until Reaper's Gale. Post Reaper's Gale is too convoluted, it's hard to discern intention and meaning when everything is so muddled. That's all despite having a ridiculous amount of filler that should be fleshing things out too but instead feels wasteful. Toll the Hounds and Dust of Dreams in particular were really hard to read, I had to push myself through them at times. I thought Dust of Dreams suffered from the same thing plus the addition of the Snake and the Shake subplots. The shake story just took way too long to make sense, although I liked some of the characters involved. The Snake storyline made less sense than the Shake and it was just way too late in the series to introduce a whole new subset of brand new characters and their motivations, especially if they're not even going to be antagonists. I just couldn't get invested in either of those parts(the Snake moreso) and they took up too many pages. I really liked the Crippled God though. I think it being the final volume helped a lot because he had to start tying up loose ends and couldn't start new side plots that wouldn't wrap up in this book. One of Erikson's strengths that a lot of fantasy books don't deliver on are his epic climaxes and he even made the payoff to the Shake storyline, which I was doubtful of leading to anything good, really kick-rear end.
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Jun 9, 2011 22:05
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savinhill posted:Toll the Hounds is where he started going way overboard with all the philosophical inner musings of characters. I liked it better on a reread because I knew what parts I could skim without missing huge chunks of important info. I'm one of the few that actually liked Toll the Hounds. Not much, but I liked were Erikson was going with it's ideas and concepts. It was boring as gently caress, but interesting. From a weird point of view. Dust of Dreams, at least for me, suffers from being the only book of the series that is left without a conclusion. The Shake and the Snake series only pay off in TCG. It can get a bit tiring to read, but I think it's worth for some badass fights and rapping mages later on. My favorite is Midnight Tides, for me it's where the Erikson hit the right spot between worldbuilding, story, characters and pay off. It's also full of foreshadowing and you get to read Erikson raging at Capitalism.
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Jun 9, 2011 22:10
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Vanilla Mint Ice posted:Who knows, Erikson himself said he hasn't given enough information to explain who or what he is. In a recent interview, someone asked Erikson if he drops enough clues in the series to tell what Quick Ben really is, and Erikson's response was: "No."
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Jun 9, 2011 22:12
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Toll the Hounds is a book I enjoyed much more on a reread because I already knew where it was headed. The first time through, though? Complete slog.
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Jun 9, 2011 22:16
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Electronico6 posted:
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Jun 9, 2011 22:23
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Levitate posted:Yeah it's the same guy. You know how at the end of book four they're all sitting around waiting for the Tiste Edur (sorry if that's mispelled) to show up at the T'Lan Imass throne and he's like "well guys I'll tell you my story about all this"? Ok thanks. I wasn't 100% sure but now I am!
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Jun 9, 2011 22:52
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Electronico6 posted:Dust of Dreams, at least for me, suffers from being the only book of the series that is left without a conclusion. The Shake and the Snake series only pay off in TCG. Well, Dust of Dreams suffers by being only the first half of The Crippled God. It further suffers by being the most depressing of the books. I'll skip the spoilers, but Jesus Christ, nothing good happens to anybody and horrible poo poo happens to most.
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Jun 10, 2011 02:12
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Electronico6 posted:It's also full of foreshadowing and you get to read Erikson raging at Capitalism. Actually not, as Erikson explained here  http://lifeasahuman.com/2011/feature/steven-eriksons-notes-on-a-crisis-part-x-if-it-hurts-like-hell/ quote:The reason this subject is on my mind is that, once again, I have been asked in a Q&A whether that empire and its political and economic system was intended as a commentary on the United States. Each time I am asked this question, my response is no.
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Jun 10, 2011 05:33
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Abalieno posted:Actually not, as Erikson explained here "(...)and one thing Midnight Tides taught me was that once a certain system of human behaviour become entrenched, it acquires a power and will of its own, against which no single individual stands a chance." Sounds like capitalism alright! 
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Jun 10, 2011 05:47
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Well, yes. The point is that Erikson considers Capitalism just one example of a more general pattern, which is the real theme he writes about. So it's not strictly a critics on Capitalism.
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Jun 10, 2011 07:57
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A few questions in general about the series that I'm sort of lost on. I'm about a quarter of the way through The Crippled God 1. Am I supposed to like Tavore Paran? She keeps pushing the army towards this suicide mission to rescueish the crippled god to stop the FA. But I haven't seen them actually do poo poo from sit in Kolanse and do nothing. 2. When Fener fell in book 2 does that mean he's fuckin around in the mortal world somewhere? Do all Gods chill in the mortal world or their respective warrens at all time or do they become non-corporeal and disappear for long tracts of time? 3. Is Dassem Ultor and Dessembrae the same person? What the poo poo is up with that dude?
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Jun 10, 2011 21:51
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Blitz7x posted:A few questions in general about the series that I'm sort of lost on. I'm about a quarter of the way through The Crippled God 1. The whole thing with Tavore is that see doesn't give anyone insight into the reasons she is pursuing her quest, but everyone follows because they trust her 2. The whole Fener business gets sorted out before the book ends, but right now he is hiding. Which is what he has been doing since getting summoned and forced to manifest mortal in the real world 3. This will be better explained further in the book as well, but yes they are the same person which has been revealed. Why he actually became a god is revealed in TCG. It seems he exists at several places at once as different pieces of his being...
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Jun 10, 2011 22:02
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Re: Fenerzokie posted:2. The whole Fener business gets sorted out before the book ends, but right now he is hiding. Which is what he has been doing since getting summoned and forced to manifest mortal in the real world
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Jun 11, 2011 00:24
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I don't recall too many gods dying, in fact, I can only think of one and that's Poliel
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Jun 11, 2011 03:39
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gvibes posted:Re: Fener TCG ending spoilers: This part still puzzles me. The conclusion I got was: He was the God of War and countless people died in his name(In the name of war), him sacrificing/spilling his blood can be his way of attaining peace of mind. Now that he is in the mortal world he can see what he had "done" in the first hand. So instead of causing death and destruction he causes rebirth and regeneration. Anyway, makes sense in my head. zokie posted:3. This will be better explained further in the book as well, but yes they are the same person which has been revealed. Why he actually became a god is revealed in TCG. It seems he exists at several places at once as different pieces of his being... More TGC ending spoilers They are indeed the same person, but at the same time they aren't. Dessembrae is the side of Dassem that accepted godhood, Traveler(Dassem Ultor) is the side that rejected it. So they are one, but split into two different identities. The one that roams Malazan world in search of vengeance and the other that hangs out at the god Hotel. Electronico6 fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Jun 11, 2011 |
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Jun 11, 2011 04:17
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if you ever make a new thread, please entitle it "The Malazan Book of the Fallen: 420 smoke rustleaf everyday"
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Jun 19, 2011 01:51
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Your post makes me wonder what the hell was the point of Aranict being such a chain smoking rear end. It seemed like the characterization of a modern anxious chain smoker crammed into a fantasy setting.
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Jun 19, 2011 02:01
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Electronico6 posted:More TGC ending spoilers It's a wonderful trick for escaping his follower's influence, which most ascendents sooner or later have to deal with. Dessembrae almost seems like something Dassem simply discarded. It's pretty clear where all the competence ended up. Edit: Too many people were already using the "drowned at sea" story.
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Jun 20, 2011 07:24
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Just finished TCG. Part of me wants to read anything but fantasy, while the other part wants to get GotM and start all over again. I'm still digesting it all, but had one question from the epilogue: When Fiddler is sitting on the dock fishing and the boy tells him there's no fish off that dock, but people say Shadowthrone's demon lives down there but Fiddler could never catch and kill that, and Fiddler says he doesn't want to kill it, just talk to it again... who or what are they talking about? Because I'm blanking.
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Jun 20, 2011 10:05
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User posted:It's a wonderful trick for escaping his follower's influence, which most ascendents sooner or later have to deal with. Dessembrae almost seems like something Dassem simply discarded. It's pretty clear where all the competence ended up. I think it's mentioned that Traveler is the 'good' part of Dassem and Dessembrae is the 'bad' part that the T'lan Imass worshiped. Of course it's rather obfuscated. A big problem I have with Erikson is that the books seem to be written for himself; he has this grand mythology, much of which is never expounded upon and he seems to take a 'gee whiz, you didn't know that?' view when something comes up. Like the Shake were cool but they're suddenly of ultimate importance despite not even showing up until book 8. Some people might like the idea that the world exists outside of the reader's purview, though.
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Jun 20, 2011 16:02
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Leospeare posted:Just finished TCG. Part of me wants to read anything but fantasy, while the other part wants to get GotM and start all over again. I'm not sure they are talking about anything in particular. Just a legend kinda like the Loch Ness Monster.
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Jun 20, 2011 16:02
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Just finished Bonehunters on the weekend. Taking a small break to read through 1 or 2 Dresden file books before I get back to it. I believe I'm at another point where I've got to read ICE's work tho. ROTCG I think... Bonehunters was decent enough IMO but it didn't feel as though there was a overarching storyline that lead to a climax and a resolution. Instead there was just a bunch of peaks and valleys of all sorts of side stories going on and then the book doesn't resolve itself and just ends.
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Jun 20, 2011 16:13
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Electronico6 posted:I'm not sure they are talking about anything in particular. Just a legend kinda like the Loch Ness Monster. No there's something about it mentioned in like one throwaway line or possibly in Night of Knives
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Jun 20, 2011 17:55
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Leospeare posted:Just finished TCG. Part of me wants to read anything but fantasy, while the other part wants to get GotM and start all over again. I thought it was the demon that was resident at Kellanved's old bar, Smiley's in Malaz City
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Jun 20, 2011 19:19
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Leospeare posted:Just finished TCG. Part of me wants to read anything but fantasy, while the other part wants to get GotM and start all over again. He's talking about the resident demon of Kellanved's flagship the Twisted who was still onboard when it sank in Malaz Harbour.
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Jun 20, 2011 21:44
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User posted:Dessembrae almost seems like something Dassem simply discarded. It's pretty clear where all the competence ended up. So Dassem was a god way before he ever started serving Kellanved?
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Jun 20, 2011 23:47
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Grammaton posted:So Dassem was a god way before he ever started serving Kellanved? I don't think he was. He became a god during his tenure as Knight of High House Death. There was a line in some book(DG or MoI) that says that Dassem became bigger than the one he served.(Hood)
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Jun 21, 2011 00:00
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Leospeare posted:Just finished TCG. Part of me wants to read anything but fantasy Elaborate?
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Jun 21, 2011 07:16
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Abalieno posted:Elaborate? Haha, after 9000+ pages and what seems like as many characters, I need something a little more down to earth to help me decompress. I've got At Home by Bill Bryson sitting on my shelf, that'll probably do the trick. After that? Not sure. I've got some Michael Moorcock collections and the first Thomas Covenant book, none of which I've started, might try one of those.
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Jun 21, 2011 10:37
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Electronico6 posted:I don't think he was. Dassem Spoiler: I thought it was that he started the whole Ascension process when he was "First Sword" and the T'lan mass (and his troops) started worshiping him.
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Jun 21, 2011 16:28
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Leospeare posted:Haha, after 9000+ pages and what seems like as many characters, I need something a little more down to earth to help me decompress. I've got At Home by Bill Bryson sitting on my shelf, that'll probably do the trick. I'm reading Wise Man's Fear now which is quite simple compared to the Malazan books. It's a nice change of pace.
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Jun 21, 2011 19:51
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